In a Legend's Shadow
by Qindox
Summary: Aleeza is the daughter of Cynthia, the Sinnoh champion. With everything expected of her, she journeys to Unova with her Gible to try and challenge the league. However as she struggles to escape the focus of a strange group called Team Plasma who are intent on using her gift to understand pokemon, she must know how to cope with being in a legend's shadow.


Cynthia closed the window shutting out the cool summer breeze. The Wingulls starting to wake as it was very early in the morning. The digital clock showed that it just turned 5:03 am. She brushed some of her blond hair out of her face noticing just how long it actually was. It flowed past her shoulders but didn't go down too far past her back. Adjusting the single strapped backpack she had on, she double checked everything she needed.

_Let's see, food, sleeping bag, potions, pokeballs, flashlight, matches..._ She thought on but knew she was forgetting something. A voice snapped her out of her thoughts:

"Mommy?"

She turned around to see a skinny little girl with shoulder length blonde hair that looked just like her own and bright blue eyes that stared at her sparkling even in the dim light of the beginning of the day. She wore a plain blue oversized T-shirt with Black shorts hidden underneath. She rubbed her little fists into her eyes as if to clear her vision better. In her other hand was a cute hand-made Garchomp plushy.

Cynthia smiled and walked over to the small 7 year-old and bent over as she stood in front of her. She brushed one of the bangs behind her ear and gently stroked her left cheek.

"Did you wake daddy?" She asked the girl. She shook her head.

"Mommy why do you have to go again, last time you missed my 5th birthday." The small blonde child mumbled sadly. Cynthia hated making her daughter upset but she had to go again.

"I told about this a few days ago remember sweetie? Mommy is going to leave for a while but I will be back." She whispered to her little girl. Cynthia wanted to leave before her husband woke up and tried to coax her in staying. She just couldn't, she had responsibilities.

Seeing the girl's lip quiver, she reached into one of the pockets of the bag and took out a striped black pokeball and released the pokemon inside of it. In a shimmer of sparkles a big mouthed dragon was released. A female Gible as the girl could tell from its fin as there was no chipped off part to indicate that it was male. It looked around curiously and settled on the small surprised little girl. She cried her name and jumped into the 7 year-olds arms rubbing against her chest. The blonde looked back and forth between the Pokemon now in her arms and her mother.

"Is this-"

"Yes. It's the egg that my Garchomp had after leaving her here with you and Daddy." Cynthia smiled as her daughter started hugging the Gible squealing in joy.

"I'm going to call you Gravel! Cause you're a ground-type and gravel is can slip through your fingers like how fast you'll be cause Mommy's Garchomp is super fast!" She started babbling excitedly. The Gible chatting away with her and she replied as if she could understand the repetitive language of the pokemon.

The sun was getting higher and soon her husband would wake. She hugged her daughter tightly and kissed her forehead whispering, "I love you, and you are what gives me happiness, my sweet little Aleeza."

~~0~~

_Three years later..._

"Mom!" Allie or how she preferred her friends and family to call her, rushed up to her mom who was in her usual dark grey Champion outfit. She looked like she just wanted to take a vacation. Her frown disappeared and was replaced by a tired smile as her daughter rushed up to her. Boy was she getting tall, she was almost at her chest and she was only 10 years old. Her blonde hair had gotten longer but she still kept it down letting her bangs falling in front of her eyes.

Following behind her was a slightly larger Gible shouting its name. Gravel had grown a good amount but she never really got too many battles in the years she had been with Aleeza. Most trainers were too powerful for her low leveled dragon or did not take her seriously.

"Bullet!" Her daughter moved on from her to her signature pokemon; Bullet the Garchomp. The shark-like dragon smiled, obviously fond of the girl and bent over as she hugged her large head. As Allie let go of Bullet her own land shark ran up to her mother, glad that she was back.

"Mom guess what? Gravel finally mastered Dragon Claw!" Aleeza went on. Cynthia noticed that a certain spiked blonde husband of hers was absent. Then said person could be seen strolling toward the two with a Raichu at his side. The Raichu, known as Static, and Bullet greeted each other warmly.

"So anything interesting happen this time?" He asked with a smirk that she loved so much.

"Nope, I'm still the Champion but there were some good battles and this one girl almost beat me. It was down to her Infernape and Bullet. I was lucky." She replied remembering the close call.

"We saw it on TV and me and Gravel cheered you on. Oh and so did Jet and Strife!" Aleeza said. The two other pokemon she referred to were the Floatzel her father helped her catch at the nearby beach and the Electivire that was her father's powerhouse on his team.

"Yeah..." He mumbled lightly. He looked up to Cynthia's worried expression. "I was really worried for you Thia." She smiled at him and hugged him, then followed with a deep kiss.

"Ew!" Allie stuck out her tongue. The pokemon all rolled their eyes.

Cynthia finally let go of him and immediately Aleeza grabbed her left arm and started guiding her back to the futuristic building with her husband's arm slung around her shoulders. Many people who were on the streets stared at the sight of the family. As the family walked through the automatic sliding doors, the sign on the side of the front door read: '_Sunnyshore Pokemon Gym'_

~~0~~

_Four years later..._

Many things were happening on this day, October 17th. Cynthia needed to head out back to the pokemon league as her usually full-time position as Sinnoh Champion but due the need of raising her daughter, she did get a 3 month break every year to see her loving husband and her beautiful daughter.

Volkner was getting more gym challengers than usual, and Strife had an egg with a female Electabuzz. Aleeza enjoyed watching her dad battle, sometimes winning and sometimes losing. She has started battling when she turned 11. Many trainers were hoping that the champion's daughter would be just as much of a challenge. Despite her best strategies and her strongest pokemon like Jet and Gravel, she usually lost to more experienced battlers.

Her team was once: Jet the Floatzel, which was her highest leveled pokemon; Gravel her Gible, who stayed unevolved due to losing to higher leveled pokemon almost daily rarely getting any experience to level up; and her dad's Jolteon, which he loaned to her until she could catch her own Electric-type.

But now her mom would finally let her go on her own journey by herself for once in her life. She already was known as Cynthia's kid to the other Sinnoh gym leaders and she had met each one of them at some point in her life. She didn't want to travel around her home region if she knew everything and everyone in it. Allie wanted to start fresh and see new kinds of pokemon. Her dad suggested Kanto, but her mother insisted that it was much too far, so they all settled on Unova.

Though Professor Juniper said it would be an honor to give a starter of Unova to another region's champion's daughter, Aleeza insisted on starting with just Gravel. Though her mother told her to stop by her lab anyway to get some supplies and her father had a surprise for her there. Since neither of her parents had a long-distance traveling flying pokemon, she was taking a ferry to Nuvema Town and then head on to her journey; her goal was to compete in both the pokemon league and beat the Elite Four and maybe even the champion but she wasn't getting her hopes up.

She was also leaving Jet and her dad's Jolteon as she wanted to start fresh with just Gravel.

"Sweetie remember that we love you and don't forget to call as often as you can." Her mom was in tears, some sadness but mainly joy. Her little girl was growing up. She was hugging her tightly wrinkling the outfit she would be mainly wearing on the journey.

Allie wore a sleek black spaghetti strap tank top with a loose light blue jean jacket open. She wore dark skinny jeans that were folded up past her knees. Though autumn was cold, it was her favorite season as she was born in October. She wore a white and pink cap with a Moon Ball outline for a design. Covering her feet were black sneakers.

After she finally got her mom to let go, her dad walked up to her ruffling her hair like he had always done even when she turned 14 just the previous day. She also hugged Static tightly as she already had hugged Bullet and currently the female dragon was saying goodbye to her daughter that was Gravel. Now Aleeza could finally train Gravel enough to evolve and finally prove their strength.

She had slipped the very same bag her mother had used on her journey before she became champion. It was green and white and many supplies inside of it.

Allie brushed some of her bangs out of her face as she loved her bothersome bangs too much to cut them off. Her long blonde hair had reached a couple of inches past her shoulders and was tied in a low ponytail but letting her bangs freely bother her eyes.

"Don't forget to call little o' me kay lighting? And tell me if you catch any new pokemon especially if they're electric type." Volkner her dad said using his nickname for her as when she was younger he had mentioned that her blonde hair reminded him of the bright lighting in storms.

Aleeza smiled and replied to her dad, "Right dad. I'll miss you a lot!" She said with a slightly sad tone. The electric type specialist gym leader noticed this. Lifting her chin so the eyes she got from him would meet the originals.

"Hey don't you worry about us, we'll be fine. And we'll always think of you." He said in a gentle and kind tone. She nodded.

"And don't forgot to pick up your surprise from Juniper's lab, and don't forget to thank her alrgiht?" Her mother reminded her.

Aleeza smirked and called for her partner and best friend; Gravel. The little Gible perked at the sound of her voice and ran to jump into her arms. She looked at her parents and their two pokemon one last time before boarding the ship. Leaning on the railing she waved at her parents until she could no longer see them and then slumped onto a bench with Gravel. Gravel soon starting pulling at her shelve motioning for a snack. Allie smiled and pulled out a oran berry and the little dragon snatched it out of her hands and began to munch on it.

As her pokemon enjoyed her snack, she stood up and leaned over the railing again to watch the sunset reflect in the seas waters as adventure awaited her in Unova.

~~0~~


End file.
